Tokyo exhibition to show harassment against anti-nuclear movement via The Asahi Shimbun

Anti-nuclear activists will hold an exhibition in Tokyo to highlight the harassment and threats they faced during a period long before the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

“We want people to understand the realities of the insidious pressure behind the promotion of nuclear power generation,” said an organizer of the Aug. 10-11 event, titled Han-genpatsu eno Iyagarase no Rekishi-ten (Exhibition of the history of harassment against the anti-nuclear movement).

About 50 letters and postcards sent to the activists in the 1990s and early 2000s will be displayed at a gallery in Shinjuku Ward.

One postcard simply says, “You are a tick.”

Some envelopes contained hair, cigarette butts and dead cockroaches. Other letters were filled with obscenities.
[…]
Yuki Adachi, a 61-year-old resident in Tokyo, said she was repeatedly harassed after she joined the anti-nuclear movement in light of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.[..]
A credit card company sent her a bill for 3 million yen (about $31,000) for a tractor that she had supposedly ordered from an agricultural machinery store in Hiroshima Prefecture. Someone had stolen her credit card number.

“Without my knowledge, I was suddenly forced into debt. I felt spine-chilling horror,” Adachi said.
[…]
Baku Nishio, 66, co-leader of the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), a nonprofit organization, said he received letters and postcards with nonsensical sentences. But in others, the messages and intentions were clear.

One year, Nishio learned that his acquaintances had received New Year’s greeting cards that falsely used his name as the sender. The messages on the cards were intended to make him appear like a member of a radical group.

“I think that the person who sent those New Year’s greeting cards wanted to split the participants and members of our activities,” Nishio said.
[…]
“The battle between those supporting the restart of idled nuclear reactors and those against it will be heating up from now on,” Kaido said. “The obstruction tactics against the anti-nuclear movement that were seen in the past could occur again.”

The exhibition will be held at the Shinjuku Ward-run Kumin Gallery in the Nishi-Shinjuku district from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 10, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 11. Admission is free.

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